Brendan Dassey from 'Making a Murderer' won't go free Friday

Earlier this week it looked like Brendan Dassey would be back with his family in time for Thanksgiving, but the nephew of Steven Avery from the Netflix series Making a Murderer will remain in prison after a last-minute appeal.

A three-judge panel from a federal appeals court on Thursday blocked Dassey's scheduled early release at the request of the state of Wisconsin, which filed an emergency appeal. Dassey was set to be released by Friday after a lower-court judge ruled he had been coerced into confessing he had helped Avery murder a woman when he was 16.

Dassey, 27, is serving a life sentence for his conviction in 2007 for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Halbach was killed in 2005 after visiting the Avery auto salvage yard in Wisconsin. The murder and Dassey's involvement was profiled in the 2015 docu-series Making a Murderer.

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"Mr. Dassey will remain in prison pending the outcome of the appeal," the Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a statement.

Dassey's attorneys have been arguing that his coerced confession was false and his constitutional rights were violated throughout the investigation process.

The attorney representing Avery, who is serving his own life sentence, was very optimistic when a federal judge ruled in favor of Dassey's release earlier this week.

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Dassey's family spokesperson called the ruling "BS."

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